TWO OF AMERICA’S FIRST FORMULA ONE TEAM CARS,
THE SCARABS, OFFERED AT BONHAMS REVIVAL SALE
1959 Scarab Formula 1 Single-Seater, estimate £700,000-950,000; 1959-Type Scarab Formula 1 Single-Seater,
estimate £400,000-525,000; and the Scarab Formula 1 Team Transporter, estimate £600,000-800,000
The Reventlow Automobiles Inc.’s (RAI) Scarab Grand Prix
single-seaters were the very first, home-grown, all-American team of
Formula 1 racing cars. Bonhams is to offer two of these Formula 1
classics, along with their much-admired Fiat-Bartoletti transporter, at
the Goodwood Revival Sale, on 12 September.
The Scarab racing team was the brainchild of Woolworth heir, Lance
Reventlow. A youthful racing enthusiast, he learned to race in
Mercedes-Benz and Porsche cars, mixed in social circles that included
the likes of James Dean, and founded Reventlow Automobiles Inc. to go
racing “for America”.
Named after the legendary Egyptian ‘good luck’ beetle, the first
two Scarab sports cars used Chevrolet V8 engines, re-writing racing
standards in US events through 1958-59. Three Formula 1 Scarabs
followed, constructed by the legendary Troutman and Barnes, combining
combining lightweight and startling looks and a Mercedes formula one
inspired fuel injected desmodromic engine. But sports-racing success in
the US and slow development delayed the Scarab team’s F1 debut until the
1960 Monaco GP. By that time the new age of rear-engined F1 cars, led
by 1959 World Champions Cooper, had re-written the performance
standards, and Reventlow’s Scarabs - driven by Reventlow himself and by
the talented driver/engineer Chuck Daigh - proved already outdated.
After running RAI for five years, during which the company built
eight racing cars, Reventlow wrote-off the operation as a tax loss.
Lance Reventlow was a true contemporary celebrity. His first wife
was Hollywood actress Jill St. John, and his second was Mickey Mouse
Club star Cheryl Holdridge. Heir to the Woolworth fortune, his mother
was wealthy socialite, Barbara Hutton. A debutante, heiress and
philanthropist, Hutton was one of the wealthiest women in the world. She
married seven times (including a brief marriage to actor, Cary Grant),
and had one son, Lance, with second husband, Count Kurt von
Haugwitz-Reventlow.
In 1972, aged only 36, Lance Reventlow was killed when his private
aircraft - flown by an inexperienced pilot he was tutoring - flew into a
box canyon near Aspen, Colorado, stalled in attempting a U-turn and
crashed.
James Knight, Bonhams International Group Motoring Director, said:
“The Scarab team cars were fantastically quick, but unfortunately for
Reventlow, not quick enough in their development. However, at events
such as the Monaco Historic, and Goodwood Revival, the superiority of
these front-engined projectiles has been absolutely demonstrated, time
after time in recent years. These Scarabs are spectacular and beautiful
Grand Prix cars with a proven race winning record at Historic motor
racing events.”
Bonhams Goodwood Revival Sale takes place on 12 September in Goodwood, Chichester. For more information visit https://www.bonhams.com/departments/MOT-CAR/.
